David Constant
Engineering Materials Compounding
David Constant - Compounding of Engineering Polymers
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David is a seasoned plastics sales & business developer with a proven track record of success across technical sales, service, marketing, and engineering within the polymer industry. He develops customized value propositions to drive profitability, build and lead technical teams, and establish innovative solutions. David is a passionate advocate for plastics sustainability, leveraging industry expertise to counter misconceptions and promote sustainable packaging. He expertly forges strategic partnerships. Successfully facilitated an international joint venture that significantly boosted plastics extrusion equipment sales. David has a deep commitment to advancing the plastics field through thought leadership and collaboration.
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CORE AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Monolayer & Co-Ex Blown │ Cast & Oriented Film │ Extrusion Coating │ Sheet, Foam, & Fibers Extrusion │ Twin Screw Compounding │ Injection Molding │ Plastic Properties Characterization │ Filament, Powder & Liquid 3D Printing (Additives Manufacturing) │ Blow Molding & Profile (tubing) Extrusion │ Applied Polymers & Coatings Technology
MATERIALS EXPERTISE
Specialty/High Temp: Sulfone Polymers, Polyetherimide, Polyphenylene Sulfide, FEP, LCP Engineering: COC, PC, ABS, SAN, PA 6, PEF, PA66, POM, TPE, PBT, PET, PEF, PBAT, PLA Commodity: HIPS, PP & PE (including copolymers, terpolymers and HMS-PP)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
July 2023 - May 2025
BASF Corporation - Sales & Business Development Manager N.A., 3D Printing Solutions
● Expanded North American business while providing expertise and assistance with using advanced BASF filament, photopolymer, powder bed fusion, or metals.
● Expertly developed system solutions for 3D printing in collaboration with BASF global research platforms, research institutes, universities, startups, and industrial partners.
● Proved feasibility of new 3D printable ceramic photopolymer for use in injection molding inserts for prototyping in an industrial environment by molding 1,000+ parts and promoted this work through a presentation at the National Plastics Exposition and two North American Webinars in partnership with Plastics Technology Magazine.
● Generated significant interest for ceramic photopolymer use in medical, sports, and automotive applications.
September 2018 - Present
BASF Corporation - Technical Development Manager, Americas, Specialty Polymers, Ultrason®
Fort Mill, SC
● Advanced polysulfone, polyethersulfone and polyphenylsulfone plastics across specialty applications including injection molding and extrusion applications by leading technical development projects in collaboration with 2 US BASF sites, 2 compounding tollers, and German HQ for a variety of end users, customers, and trade associations Extrusion trial examples included 1.5” water pipe, medical tubing and sheet for face shields.
● Received national recognition through the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) for methods development, changing several longstanding methods involving polysulfone and polyphenylsulfone to allow more competitive products to participate in fittings for the PEX extruded pipe industry, specifically for residential/commercial potable water applications. Contributed to tech committees including competitive material suppliers and customers to statistically prove data.
● Created four internet based Ultrason® Training Videos for Domestic and International customer use.
June 2016 - August 2018
BASF Corporation - Manager, Packaging Applications Laboratory, Advanced Materials Research
Wyandotte, MI
● Managed a team of 12 including one Packaging Engineer, 2 technicians, 7 Co-op Engineering Students and 2 Engineering Consultants focused on food packaging in partnership with internal teams, converters, and brand owners.
● Headed a €1 million budget and facilitated tensile, tear, impact, sealing, and barrier (OTR & WVTR) testing with primary pilot scale equipment including narrow web flexographic printing, paper coating, cast film extrusion/extrusion coating, adhesive laminations, and plastics sheet extrusion/thermoforming.
● Liaised with Clemson University Packaging Science Department to prove feasibility of packaging films applications, making stand-up pouches with a new biopolymer, laminations technology, flexographic printing, and converting.
January 2013 - May 2016
BASF Corporation - Packaging Applications Engineer, Packaging Industry Team
Charlotte, NC
● Accelerated innovation and sustainability of flexible food packaging as a key member of a cross-functional marketing team. Provided critical know-how for best use of relevant BASF products including extrudable/moldable polymers, biodegradable polymers, pigments, inks, plastics additives, coatings and dispersions for paper and plastics films, as well as adhesives for adhesive laminations at converters.
● Supported Project Management, Construction Services, EH&S and Facilities Management to build, staff, and launch a new 5,000 sq. ft. a state of the art packaging applications lab with a $1.6 million budget.
● Developed competitive aqueous paper coating material as a sustainable alternative approach to extrusion coated LDPE for liquid food packaging.
March 2011 - December 2012
NEX Performance Films - Technical Product Manger
Turner Falls, MA
● Supported sales and production at 3 plants with focus on multilayer blown sealant films, monolayer, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 layer film structures.
● Developed innovative new film structures for existing and new customers, primarily within North America. Built proprietary medical film structure (7-layer) for IV-bag applications for a major medical packaging supplier.
June 2010 - March 2011
Plast-Control, Inc. - Sales Manager, USA & Canada
Newburyport, MA
● Responsible for specifying and selling German based Plast-Control extrusion process management technology equipment and control software to major US blown film manufacturing operations.
September 2004 - January 2010
Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co, Inc. - Director, International Sales & JV Facilitator
Gloucester, MA
● Identified, hired, trained, managed and supported a network of 22 Sales Agencies globally to increase sales of plastics extrusion (film & foam) equipment manufacturer Gloucester Engineering film & foam. Sales closures averaged $20MM/yr.
● Convinced management to commit to a new JV with a leading Indian machinery manufacturer to lower Gloucester manufacturing cost basis. Facilitated JV to insure proper communications and information exchanges leading to a consolidated, global product line for blown film machinery.
● Projects Management: Coordinated engineering, production, delivery, installation, start-up and commissioning of two high output, 5L blown film lines for the UK, one for India, Canada and the US. Also managed one Machine direction orientation unit (MDO) for the UK and a cast stretch film line for Chile. Total projects value: ~ $14 MM
March 2002 - August 2004
Ticona LLC - Applications Development Engineer, Topas® COC Films
Summit, NJ
● Developed significant (40k lbs/mo) business for German based manufacturer of Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC) engineering plastics with the top flexible packaging manufacturers in North America.
July 1999 - February 2002
Ticona LLC - Applications Engineer, New Business Development
Summit, NJ
● Built and Managed Films Applications laboratory consisting of 1 supervisor, two technicians and two co-op university students. Lab equipment included a 5-layer coex cast film / extrusion coating and laminations line, pellets drying and conveying equipment, off-line film layer thickness measurement equipment, biaxial stretching simulator, hot tack and heat seal testing.
● Scheduled lab for internal and external customers samples assessments. Work revolved around Ticona's portfolio of engineering polymers, including Liquid crystal polymer, PBT, thermoplastic elastomers, nylon 6,6, polyphenylene sulfide, polyacetal and COC.
February 1998 - June 1999
Mobil Chemical - Engineering Associate
Edison, NJ
● Developed and patented new "branched" HDPE with improved melt strength for low density foams.
September 1994 - January 1998
Paxon Polymer - Technical Services Manager, HDPE
Baton Rouge, LA
● Managed Staff of 12 Tech Services Engineers and an annual budget of $20 MM for HDPE business support, including salaries/benefits.
● Coordinated transition of two major US dairies (involving at least 20 individual plant sites) from competitor with a new dairy grade. HDPE Volume Involved: 80 million Ibs. annualized, accounting for part of an Internal capacity expansion program.
● Conducted UV light blocking Investigation with TiO2 in HDPE dairy grade for large TN based customer, to extend milk product shelf life for more cost-effective distribution.
● Led Interactive Training Team for major Household Industrial Chemicals customer. Developed program for PC driven CD laser disc system that was implemented in 32 plants for new employee training.
● Key contributor to new inter-site ExxonMobil Performance Appraisal Team.
May 1979 - August 1994
Hercules, Inc./HIMONT, Inc. - Technology Manager, Staff Engineer, Engineer, PP & LLDPE
Wilmington, DE/ Ferrara, Italy
● Injection Molding Projects in automotive, medical, housewares and appliance
● Biaxially oriented film projects, homopolymer and random copolymer, blown film
● Fiber extrusion projects, including monofilament, multifilament, spun bond & melt blown for disposable sanitary napkins/diapers
EDUCATION
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
PUBLICATIONS
PATENTS
PATENT APPLICATIONS
Monolayer & Co-Ex Blown │ Cast & Oriented Film │ Extrusion Coating │ Sheet, Foam, & Fibers Extrusion │ Twin Screw Compounding │ Injection Molding │ Plastic Properties Characterization │ Filament, Powder & Liquid 3D Printing (Additives Manufacturing) │ Blow Molding & Profile (tubing) Extrusion │ Applied Polymers & Coatings Technology
MATERIALS EXPERTISE
Specialty/High Temp: Sulfone Polymers, Polyetherimide, Polyphenylene Sulfide, FEP, LCP Engineering: COC, PC, ABS, SAN, PA 6, PEF, PA66, POM, TPE, PBT, PET, PEF, PBAT, PLA Commodity: HIPS, PP & PE (including copolymers, terpolymers and HMS-PP)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
July 2023 - May 2025
BASF Corporation - Sales & Business Development Manager N.A., 3D Printing Solutions
● Expanded North American business while providing expertise and assistance with using advanced BASF filament, photopolymer, powder bed fusion, or metals.
● Expertly developed system solutions for 3D printing in collaboration with BASF global research platforms, research institutes, universities, startups, and industrial partners.
● Proved feasibility of new 3D printable ceramic photopolymer for use in injection molding inserts for prototyping in an industrial environment by molding 1,000+ parts and promoted this work through a presentation at the National Plastics Exposition and two North American Webinars in partnership with Plastics Technology Magazine.
● Generated significant interest for ceramic photopolymer use in medical, sports, and automotive applications.
September 2018 - Present
BASF Corporation - Technical Development Manager, Americas, Specialty Polymers, Ultrason®
Fort Mill, SC
● Advanced polysulfone, polyethersulfone and polyphenylsulfone plastics across specialty applications including injection molding and extrusion applications by leading technical development projects in collaboration with 2 US BASF sites, 2 compounding tollers, and German HQ for a variety of end users, customers, and trade associations Extrusion trial examples included 1.5” water pipe, medical tubing and sheet for face shields.
● Received national recognition through the American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) for methods development, changing several longstanding methods involving polysulfone and polyphenylsulfone to allow more competitive products to participate in fittings for the PEX extruded pipe industry, specifically for residential/commercial potable water applications. Contributed to tech committees including competitive material suppliers and customers to statistically prove data.
● Created four internet based Ultrason® Training Videos for Domestic and International customer use.
June 2016 - August 2018
BASF Corporation - Manager, Packaging Applications Laboratory, Advanced Materials Research
Wyandotte, MI
● Managed a team of 12 including one Packaging Engineer, 2 technicians, 7 Co-op Engineering Students and 2 Engineering Consultants focused on food packaging in partnership with internal teams, converters, and brand owners.
● Headed a €1 million budget and facilitated tensile, tear, impact, sealing, and barrier (OTR & WVTR) testing with primary pilot scale equipment including narrow web flexographic printing, paper coating, cast film extrusion/extrusion coating, adhesive laminations, and plastics sheet extrusion/thermoforming.
● Liaised with Clemson University Packaging Science Department to prove feasibility of packaging films applications, making stand-up pouches with a new biopolymer, laminations technology, flexographic printing, and converting.
January 2013 - May 2016
BASF Corporation - Packaging Applications Engineer, Packaging Industry Team
Charlotte, NC
● Accelerated innovation and sustainability of flexible food packaging as a key member of a cross-functional marketing team. Provided critical know-how for best use of relevant BASF products including extrudable/moldable polymers, biodegradable polymers, pigments, inks, plastics additives, coatings and dispersions for paper and plastics films, as well as adhesives for adhesive laminations at converters.
● Supported Project Management, Construction Services, EH&S and Facilities Management to build, staff, and launch a new 5,000 sq. ft. a state of the art packaging applications lab with a $1.6 million budget.
● Developed competitive aqueous paper coating material as a sustainable alternative approach to extrusion coated LDPE for liquid food packaging.
March 2011 - December 2012
NEX Performance Films - Technical Product Manger
Turner Falls, MA
● Supported sales and production at 3 plants with focus on multilayer blown sealant films, monolayer, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 layer film structures.
● Developed innovative new film structures for existing and new customers, primarily within North America. Built proprietary medical film structure (7-layer) for IV-bag applications for a major medical packaging supplier.
June 2010 - March 2011
Plast-Control, Inc. - Sales Manager, USA & Canada
Newburyport, MA
● Responsible for specifying and selling German based Plast-Control extrusion process management technology equipment and control software to major US blown film manufacturing operations.
September 2004 - January 2010
Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co, Inc. - Director, International Sales & JV Facilitator
Gloucester, MA
● Identified, hired, trained, managed and supported a network of 22 Sales Agencies globally to increase sales of plastics extrusion (film & foam) equipment manufacturer Gloucester Engineering film & foam. Sales closures averaged $20MM/yr.
● Convinced management to commit to a new JV with a leading Indian machinery manufacturer to lower Gloucester manufacturing cost basis. Facilitated JV to insure proper communications and information exchanges leading to a consolidated, global product line for blown film machinery.
● Projects Management: Coordinated engineering, production, delivery, installation, start-up and commissioning of two high output, 5L blown film lines for the UK, one for India, Canada and the US. Also managed one Machine direction orientation unit (MDO) for the UK and a cast stretch film line for Chile. Total projects value: ~ $14 MM
March 2002 - August 2004
Ticona LLC - Applications Development Engineer, Topas® COC Films
Summit, NJ
● Developed significant (40k lbs/mo) business for German based manufacturer of Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC) engineering plastics with the top flexible packaging manufacturers in North America.
July 1999 - February 2002
Ticona LLC - Applications Engineer, New Business Development
Summit, NJ
● Built and Managed Films Applications laboratory consisting of 1 supervisor, two technicians and two co-op university students. Lab equipment included a 5-layer coex cast film / extrusion coating and laminations line, pellets drying and conveying equipment, off-line film layer thickness measurement equipment, biaxial stretching simulator, hot tack and heat seal testing.
● Scheduled lab for internal and external customers samples assessments. Work revolved around Ticona's portfolio of engineering polymers, including Liquid crystal polymer, PBT, thermoplastic elastomers, nylon 6,6, polyphenylene sulfide, polyacetal and COC.
February 1998 - June 1999
Mobil Chemical - Engineering Associate
Edison, NJ
● Developed and patented new "branched" HDPE with improved melt strength for low density foams.
September 1994 - January 1998
Paxon Polymer - Technical Services Manager, HDPE
Baton Rouge, LA
● Managed Staff of 12 Tech Services Engineers and an annual budget of $20 MM for HDPE business support, including salaries/benefits.
● Coordinated transition of two major US dairies (involving at least 20 individual plant sites) from competitor with a new dairy grade. HDPE Volume Involved: 80 million Ibs. annualized, accounting for part of an Internal capacity expansion program.
● Conducted UV light blocking Investigation with TiO2 in HDPE dairy grade for large TN based customer, to extend milk product shelf life for more cost-effective distribution.
● Led Interactive Training Team for major Household Industrial Chemicals customer. Developed program for PC driven CD laser disc system that was implemented in 32 plants for new employee training.
● Key contributor to new inter-site ExxonMobil Performance Appraisal Team.
May 1979 - August 1994
Hercules, Inc./HIMONT, Inc. - Technology Manager, Staff Engineer, Engineer, PP & LLDPE
Wilmington, DE/ Ferrara, Italy
● Injection Molding Projects in automotive, medical, housewares and appliance
● Biaxially oriented film projects, homopolymer and random copolymer, blown film
● Fiber extrusion projects, including monofilament, multifilament, spun bond & melt blown for disposable sanitary napkins/diapers
EDUCATION
- Bachelor of Science, Plastics Engineering
- UMASS Lowell, MA
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- Society of Plastics Engineers, since 1977
- Member Emeritus 2025
- Board Member of Flexible Packaging Division, 2003 - 2005 & 2012 - 2020
- ASTM, since 2018
PUBLICATIONS
- 2/24 and 10/24 Webinar Presentations, c/o Plastics Technology Magazine, ref. 3D Printing
- 5/24 National Plastics Exposition (NPE), Rapid Prototyping
- 4/24 Rapid Prototyping with 3D Printed Injection Molding Inserts, SPE 3rd Annual Plastics in Electric & Autonomous Vehicles Conference, Troy, MI
- 10/16 Advances in Flexographic Printing Inks Technology. A Re-solubility Study on BOPP film, FlexPackCon /AIMCAL Web Coating Conference, Memphis, TN (co-author)
- 5/07 Basic Rheology, as related to Extrusion Coating Machinery, AICHE Tappi 11th Annual PLACE Conference, Athens, Greece
- 11/06 Barrier Blown Films Applications and Technology Overview, PAGEV Int’l Congress, Istanbul, Turkey
- 3/04 Cyclic-Olefin Copolymers as Non-Migrating, Polymeric Slip Additives in LDPE and LLDPE Cast Films, CerTech “Additives for Polyolefins” Conference, Namur-Wepion, Belgium
- 5/02 Cyclic-Olefin Copolymers as Non-Migrating, Polymeric Slip Additives in LDPE Cast Films, Technical Paper / Presentations for ANTEC 2002, San Francisco, CA, 5/02 and Tappi Conf., Boston, MA 9/02
- 8/01 New Family of Liquid Crystal Polymers Expands Applications in Barrier Packaging, Technical Paper and Tappi PLACE Magazine article, Tappi 2001 Polymers, Laminations & Coatings Conf., San Diego, CA
- 10/99 Crystallization Effects on Foamability of Polyethylene, Technical Paper and Presentation submitted for Foams '99 Conference, NJ
- 10/97 ESCR in Large Part Blow Molding Technical Paper and Presentation, SPE Regional Technical Conference (RETEC), Montreal, Canada (co-author)
- 10/95 Polyethylene Fundamentals Presentation, Hobson Blow Molding Conference, Iowa
PATENTS
- Foamable HDPE (2001)
- Aqueous Based Polymer Coating (2021)
PATENT APPLICATIONS
- Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC) Twist Films for Candy Wrap
- Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) for Packaging Applications
- Paper Cup with Polyethylene Coating or Aqueous Coating, 2015